After just a few seasons with the Sacramento Kings, Michael Malone has been fired rather abruptly as the team looks to find it’s identity moving forward.
In a rather shocking move, the Sacramento Kings fired head coach Michael Malone in the overnight hours following a start that initially saved Malone’s job. Sacramento didn’t start the season out nearly as bad as anyone thought they might, but the team is still 11-13 entering another week of play and that’s just not good enough for ownership.
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What is shocking fans this morning isn’t that Malone as fired, it’s that he was fired so abruptly at a time when the Kings might turn a corner as a franchise. Instead, Sacramento is going to play out the remainder of the regular season with interim head coach Tyrone Corbin and will seek a long term replacement over the summer.
According to Adrian Wonarowksi from Yahoo! Sports, the Kings fired Malone over a difference of opinion in the style of coaching that was going on.
"There has been significant tension between management and Malone on several fronts over the past year, and the firing ultimately turned out to be another cautionary tale in what happens when ownership doesn’t put together management and coaching staffs that have similar philosophies and a shared partnership."
It was a swift exit for a guy that the Kings were hoping would end up being the next great young coach in the NBA. When they plucked him off of the Golden State Warriors coaching staff, it was at a time when Malone was being considered for gigs in Los Angeles, Denver and even in Oakland with the Warriors.
The Kings were the team who nabbed him, but the difference in coaching style between what Malone wanted and what ownership wanted created a chaotic situation that was solved by Malone being dismissed and fired on Sunday night.
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